Home Affairs deputy minister, Misheck Bonshe said in Parliament yesterday that over K13 billion of the Government's own resources on passport systems had been spent and K9,586,746,800 was required to be appropriated to passport books, outstanding bills as well as other payments.
He said that the Government did not have any plans to reduce the current passport fees of K300,000 and K500,000 for a 32 pages and 64 pages document respectively.
Mr Bonshe said this when he responded to a question by Luapula MP Peter Machungwa (PF) who wanted to know whether there were any plans to reduce the fees paid when obtaining the document.
He said that the expiry period of the passport was 10 years and the cost on the annual basis was negligible when compared to the amount of money that the passport holder spends on air tickets, accommodation, food and other incidentals when out of the country.
Acting Home Affairs Minister, George Mpombo said that the money charged when acquiring the document was not a fundraising venture for the Government.
He said that the reason why the money was perceived to be exorbitant was because the raw materials used to process the document was of high quality.
Mr Mpombo said that the features on the new document made it difficult for crooks to forge the passports as the case was with the current ones.
He also said that so far, 40,000 new passports had been processed and 2,000 had remained uncollected at the passport office.
He said this when he responded to a supplementary question by Katuba MP Jonas Shakafuswa (MMD) who wanted to know whether the introduction of the fees was not a fundraising gimmick.
Energy and Water Development Minister, Kenneth Konga said that there were no immediate plans by the Government to start importing crude oil from Angola.
This should be so because Indeni Refinery uses crude oil instead of the pure oil imported from Angola. The imported oil from Angola would not be compatible and it was therefore not feasible for the Government to import the oil from that country.
Times of Zambia
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